News Links: Monetary Realism and why the Fed won’t tell the truth

I feel that the core operational aspects of MMT are among the most important ideas in the world and my goal here has always been to help promote those ideas. Because I believe in those ideas I will not stop promoting them. So I’ve been working with Michael Sankowski, Carlos Mucha (who most of you probably know as reader Beowulf) and several others to help formulate our thinking. I’ve also been in detailed talks with Warren Mosler over the last several weeks hashing out some differences. It’s safe to say that we have his blessing even though he’s not 100% in agreement with all we’ve concluded.

the Fed knows the U.S. can’t be the next Greece, as politicians from all sides continuously warn and fear monger. They know that Greece and the other eurozone member nations are in the position of US states, currency users, not the federal government, the issuer of its currency. And they know that the ECB is the currency issuer for the euro, and, like the U.S. government, its expenditures are not revenue constrained.

Today I’d like to address the dollar swap lines extended by the Federal Reserve to the European Central Bank and other foreign central banks. My criticism is that the lines are represented to Congress as secured lending, when in fact, for all practical purposes, the Fed is engaging in what is, functionally, unsecured lending to these foreign central banks.

Google’s new mega privacy policy will combine more than 60 different policies into one. That itself is dangerous, thinks campaign organisation The Open Rights Group (ORG). "Does this simplicity come at the expense of strong boundaries between Google products. Will details that users thought might be private on one be revealed in unexpected ways on another?" asked Peter Bradwell, a ORG campaigner.

Technology site Gizmodo said that the change was the end of Google’s ‘don’t be evil motto. The site’s Mat Honan wrote: ‘It means that things you could do in relative anonymity today, will be explicitly associated with your name, your face, your phone number. ‘If you use Google’s services, you have to agree to this new privacy policy. It is an explicit reversal of its previous policies.’

Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom joked in e-mails with his new neighbours in New Zealand two years ago about his bad-boy reputation before telling them his criminal past was behind him. He admitted he was a ‘former computer hacker’ who was once convicted of insider trading, but went on to say: ‘In all seriousness, my wife, two kids and myself love New Zealand and we come in peace.’

Smartr for iPhone includes all of the features that Android and Gmail users get. Contacts are arranged by importance and recent use, so you always see the people you contact often at the top of the lsit, instead of alphabetically. Also, Once Smartr scans your contacts and connects to your social networks, it builds a complete profile of each person in your contact list, complete with their phone number, email address (or multiple addresses), links to their social network profiles on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, and common contacts you both have on those networks. The app will even display your recent history with that contact, like emails and text messages the two of you have recently exchanged.

Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson went on offense against Newt Gingrich Monday, attacking the former House speaker’s proposal to execute marijuana users as hypocritical, considering the GOP contender has himself admitted to smoking pot. Johnson is currently seeking the Libertarian Party nomination for president, and is a proponent of legalizing the drug

Germany and other big northern European countries are running very large trade surpluses: they can remit cash to the periphery if they have the political will to do so. And if they don’t have the political will to do so, there’s no way in which the US, China, and the rest of the world can or should step in to try to save the likes of Greece and Portugal.

Nationalism is on the rise across Europe, both in the periphery states tired of being bossed around and the core states tired of being asked to open their pocketbooks. Last night, President Obama joined the chorus that has just begun to sing the praises of "me first" economics.

Instead of a "narrowband" audio codec, which limits the frequency range of a call, Bria has several "wideband" codecs (some available as an in-app purchase), bringing richer sound as well as a reduction in background noise.

Edward Harrison is the founder of Credit Writedowns and a former career diplomat, investment banker and technology executive with over twenty five years of business experience. He has also been a regular economic and financial commentator in print and on television for the past decade. He speaks six languages and reads another five, skills he uses to provide a more global perspective. Edward holds an MBA in Finance from Columbia University and a BA in Economics from Dartmouth College.